Back To School Week Giveaway and Special Offer from Japanistic

16 Aug 2010 by maki

Japanistic is already well known amongst bento fans as a source for well priced bento boxes and accessories, not to mention a lot of other great products from Japan such as stationery, craft items and more. They’re offering a special discount on a very useful bento box set, plus a giveaway prize to JustBento readers. Both feature bento boxes with clear lids and large snap-on plastic side clips. These types of clips are easy to open and close even for little hands, and keep the contents really secure. They don’t require elastic bands to hold them closed - one less item to worry about getting lost.

It features a single-layer bento box, a small side box, and matching chopsticks. You could use the bento box or the side box on their own of course. The price for the set is $31.45, 10% off the price if purchased separately. The Addy Drop Back-to-School Package can be shipped worldwide.

And here’s the equally cute giveaway prize!

This set consists of a Hobee 1-layer bento box (capacity: 400ml) with large snap-on side clips, and the matching chopsticks. 400ml is a great size for kids, and can be used as a snack bento or side box for people with large appetites.

How to enter the Japanistic giveaway

Update: This drawing is now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered! The winner will be announced next week.

Please note that this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

To enter, just leave a comment to this post, telling us how you discovered bentos. Be sure to include a valid email address where you can be contacted in the appropriate text box! Your comment must be posted by 23:59:59 EDT (U.S. East Coast Time) (or just before midnight) of Friday, August 20th 2010. One lucky entry will be drawn at random to receive the Hobee bento box and chopstick set. Good luck!

This is Giveaway No. 1 of Back To School Week. Stay tuned for more throughout the week! (Non-US residents don’t worry, there will be giveaways later in the week that you can enter too.)

I discovered bentos when the company I formerly worked for produces a "baby bento," essentially a tupperware type container for baby food that included a divider and a snap on lid. While researching, I fell in love!

I found Just Bento when my friend linked me the page. You see, her girlfriend really wants this bento giveaway.

But I want it more. I want it with a fiery, all-consuming passion. I want to make rabbit shaped onigiri to fill my new bento. I want to go to the Boston museum of art and wave this bento around, then send pictures to my friend's miserable girlfriend. Every day for a year I'll send her a picture of me and my new bento friend, rocking out, making the world a better place.

This bento will change my life, and my friend's girl will be the loneliest person to ever live. Ever.

I had seen bento lunches in anime and when I had to start cooking for myself I decided it would be a good way to plan my meals (at least lunch). I have really enjoyed making my bento lunches and it makes me excited to eat at lunch.

You are gonna laugh...I am pretty sure it was Pet Society on Facebook. They had mystery bento boxes for their Japanese theme week, so I looked it up to see exactly what they were AND I WAS HOOKED!!! What is funny, I don't even play Pet Society anymore. Thanks for the giveaway and your inspiration :]

I discovered bento from various anime, and became interested in it because of all the adorable things you could create with food. then when I realized how it's such a good tool for keeping track of healthy eating, I became obsessed. bento is awesome!

I learned about bentos while trying to figure out how to encourage my toddler to try new foods. We started with muffin tin meals at home with success so now I'm moving on to bentos for him to bring to school.

My husband traveled to Japan four years ago and brought one home for our daughter. It was all over after that moment. Thank goodness I got a lot of research in before his second trip back, bentos are very hard to find in Colorado!

I've grown up knowing about bentos, me being part of an Asian family, but I've never made my own before. Upon discovering this website through a network of other food blogs I follow, I'm more than inspired to begin making my own!

I can't exactly remember how I discovered bentos as I have known about it for a while. I have always and continue to pack lunches for my boys and hubby. I now put in a little more effort to make the lunches more appealing with easily available bento gear and ideas from blog like yours.

I used to read a lot of shoujo manga - I think the first one I ever read (and where bento shows up) is Fruits Basket. Until a few months ago, all I knew about them was that they were Japanese lunches, usually with rice, packed in a box. It wasn't until I found this site through Google Reader that I started to understand the full depth and meaning of what a bento is.

I've made a few lately in tupperware, but it would be nice to have a small box. :D

I first found out about bento's when I stumbled upon a website called Jbox.com. I was looking through their item selection when came across a cute little lunch box called a bento and it had a picture of all the food neatly placed inside I immediately said "OHMIGOSH... is all of that edible? I HAVE to HAVE IT!!!" I was literally obsessed after that and I found hundreds of adorable bento pictures and recipe sites. Including one justbento.com. Since then I have bought a few very rewarding bento's and I hope to make my collection even bigger.

I was first introduced to bento through an anime called Bamboo Blade. After seeing it in countless more amines, each ridiculously adorable and unique, I quickly became obssessed with creating them,lol! Yours was the first real life bento site I visited, and I have been trying my hand in bento and following your site for almost a year now. I love it, and it makes my friends jealous! :D

Such a cute box! My Mr. Bento is quite functional, but I do get tired of the grey metallic look sometimes..... I love your sites--I used your chijimi recipe this afternoon to use up some of my farmer's market nira!

Hello! This is a very cute bento box and 400 ml sounds like a great size since i have a smaller one too. Well, i discovered bento growing up because i was born in Japan, but I am not Japanese :P I speak Japanese and eat Japanese and visit Japan so in soul I am Japanese?? Well the point is I discovered bentos from my mom (well she never made me any she just told me aha...) and surrounding family :) I have started to make bentos this year in order to take my mom's yummy food to lunch and so that I don't have to keep eating sandwiches. When I discovered this website I was thrilled. All the tips and articles stimulate my bento creativity!

I actually discovered Bento here. I got into cooking Japanese food in high school when a friend took me to this wonderfull tiny place tucked away in a nearby town and made me try my first real bowl of Ramen. I love to cook so I continued to experiment on my own for a long time. One of the first places I went when I got my first car was Mitsuwa Marketplace. My boyfriend, now husband, recomended I look into finding real recipies online to supplement my attempts to recreate stuff from resturants and cookbooks. So, I stumbled onto Just Hungry, which led me to Just Bento and I haven't packed a brown bag lunch since. :)

I found bento by independant discovery... when I was in 9th grade (haha more than a decade ago T___T) I found this badtz maru bento box at the Navy Exchange (I was a military kid) and I had this great idea to fill it with my favorite food of the time - Goya Primavera Rice (a flavored rice with vegetable bits). I used the hell out of that thing. I suppose the first time I really saw it as something Japanese was near the end of high school (in a different school) when my Japanese friends and teacher commented on my lunch boxes and their contents (by then rice and vegetables boiled in soy sauce was my thing). Up until then I had always just thought of it as a homemade lunch and still don't see it as any different. Then again, the foods I packed were the foods I ate and the foods I grew up eating. Pretty bento are a whole different story though... I have a sister seven years younger than me... I learned about decoben and charaben in effort to get her to not skip lunch.

I was in the Marine Corp and always wanted to go to Japan so I requested my next duty station to be Okinawa, Japan. I feel in love with the culture and the people. I rented an apartment and bought a car so I could live off base to be fully immersed in the lifestyle. I learned to speak, read and write Japanese with the help of my Okinawan friends. I lived there for 4 years and did not want to come home. I often think of that time in my life and almost 30 years later I still speak Japanese and try to eat like I did back then and it is the bentos that I really miss. Those little roadside vendors selling the most wonderful food.

I found a recipe for a salmon salad bento in a cooking magazine, using olive oil instead of mayo to hold the salad together. The recipe also included crackers for eating the salmon salad and some fresh cut veggies and fruit. Now I love trying new bento recipes because they encourage a balanced lunch with fruits and veggies. The next one I'm sure my husband will love is the bacon wrapped tofu! Thanks for your wonderful blog and archive of recipes.

I discovered bentos because of my Japanese friend at school. She brought them to lunch every day and shared them with me. It was delicious. I love Japanese food so I looked up how to make my own bento and found this site! Now I'm really addicted to making them...

I got into Bentos when I was living overseas and needed to begin bringing inexpensive lunches for myself and the soldier to an office environment. And I didn't want to be stuck at my desk crunching a paper bag filled with a PB+J. I found JustBento fairly early on and have been following ever since!
Hope you're feeling better!
~~Alie

I discovered Google Reader and started searching for cooking feeds. I came across JustBento and have been following ever since. I have found other Bento feeds but none were as helpful, especially because I make bentos for my toddler.

i became aware of bentou boxes when i started reading manga and watching anime at the age of 6 or 7. i then bought my first bentou box at kinokuniya in NYC. i use it a lott and always have something amazing to make. i love bentou boxes!! they're so cute and practical.

I loved the idea of bento from the first time I saw it, alllll the way back in Junior High when I saw Makoto's cute bento lunches in Sailor Moon. (I know, it's a little corny.) Once I graduated from college, got an office job, and my behind expanded to fit the chair, I started watching portions. Bento seemed a very logical way to do it, since I was paying close attention to what I was packing anyway. It worked great, I lost 40 lb, and I just kept the tradition going. Now I pack for my husband too, and he loves it! (He's definitely a tamagoyaki addict.)

I'm a looooong time lurker here. Maki's recipes are solid gold. Every single one I've tried has been a huge hit. I await my cookbook with breathless anticipation. :3

I discovered the world of bento while looking online, trying to find a way to get my daughter more interested in her food. It worked! Having an appealing display of food not only makes her less picky about her food in general, she is also more willing to eat healthy.

I knew about bentos from anime and manga, but didn't really understand them until I found your site. Now I make myself a bento every day for my lunch and have even gotten my boyfriend to make bentos. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes and bentos!

Those boxes are adorable! I'm so excited they ship to the U.S.! I must bookmark the page.

I heard about bentos while studying Japanese language and culture in college, but I didn't get the full picture until I moved to Japan for a year and a half. I was teaching English and part of the job was to teach in public schools. I needed to make my own lunch due to food allergies (and I didn't want the school to feel they need to make their school lunches around me). I was trying to learn about the culture as much as possible and wanted to try and fit in, so I began researching bento boxes in order to make a decent Japanese style lunch (which is how I came across this site). It was lots of fun. Now that I'm back in the U.S., I want to continue using bentos to balance my meals.

I first learned of bento's existence while watching anime as a kid, but I didn't really "discover" it until I spent a month in Yokosuka and saw how it's used for real-life, every day food. I bought a small box for each of my siblings as a souvenir. :-)

I don't have a lot of time to pack/prepare bento boxes, but eventually I'll get there.

The first time I really learned about bentos was when I did a google search for recipes. I love to cook, and asian food is my favorite. I eventually stumbled upon this gem of a website and have been making bentos on and off for a while now.

elusive anime bento shots!
i must have been eleven or so, it was definitely one of makotos elaborate bento boxes in "sailor moon" that caught my attention. breaded shrimp in school lunch boxes? i was intrigued! unidentifiable colourfull things? i wanted to try all that stuff so badly! i remember tamagoyaki being pictured, but it took me something like 15 years to figure out what these yellow round spiraly things were supposed to be.

I "discovered" bento when my son started daycare where lunch was not provided. Growing up in Korea, my mom always packed by lunch for me bento-style so it wasn't completely new, but it was interesting to adapt American food into it!

I've always been a big fan of anime/manga/jdramas and I kind of picked it up from there. But it wasn't until I really started getting into Japanese cooking that I really realized bento existed. I was looking for recipes and I kind of just stumbled upon bento pictures.

Although I'd bumped up against Bento Boxes at a schwanky spa a few years ago, I'd say that it was my very wise and wonderful friend Catherine that actually introduced me to Bentos! She's a savvy eater - health and portion-wise, and always clues me in to the best ways to satisfy my hunger, health, and aesthetic needs. Bento boxes are the perfect answer to a healthy, interesting, and fun-to-eat lunch! She's great - and so are bentos!